IV. Rules for Inducing Soul Control - Part 1

In considering the rules
which can induce soul control, it is not my intention to recapitulate the many
rules which the aspirant must follow as he perseveres in his endeavor to tread
the path to the source—that path to what the Buddhists call Nirvana. This Path
is, in fact, but the beginning of that higher Way which leads to a life
incomprehensible, even to the most developed of the Beings in our planetary
Hierarchy. Nor is it essential that we emphasize the details of living which
must control the man who is seeking to function as a soul in command of the
personality. These have oft been adequately outlined by disciples down the
ages, and reduced to many words. They have also been dealt with in my earlier
book A Treatise on White Magic and other books. Our immediate problem
is the application of these rules for discipleship and a steady [215] progress in their practical technique. My present
purpose is a far more difficult one, for this Treatise is written for the
future more than for present students. I seek to indicate the basic rules
determining the hierarchical government, and conditioning, therefore, world
affairs. We are here concerned therefore with the subtle activities of
energies which, on the inner side, actuate the outer activities and bring about
those events in the world of men which later form history.

The problem before the
Hierarchy is twofold and can be expressed in two questions:—

1. How can the consciousness
of humanity be expanded so that it can be developed from the germ of
self-consciousness (such as it was at individualisation) and be brought up to
that of complete group consciousness and identification as occurs when the
final initiation is undergone?

2. How can the ascending
energy of the fourth kingdom in nature be brought into such close rapport with
the descending energy of spirit that another great expression—a group
expression—of Deity may emerge through man into manifestation?

Two points should therefore
here be noted:—First, that the attention of the members of the Hierarchy who
work at this time with mankind is not centred upon the individual aspirant in
any manner which could be interpreted as personal interest. Interest in him is
evoked just in so far as he is occupied with matters which concern group good.
The second point is one well known and often stressed of late. At this time we
are passing through a period of unprecedented opportunity and crisis, and the
attention of the Hierarchy is consequently focussed upon men in an exceedingly
one-pointed manner as They attempt to capitalise, for the benefit [216] of man, upon this opportunity. Herein lie both
responsibility and the ground for hope.

The rules, therefore, which
we are to consider are not the laws of the soul or the laws controlling the
stages of human development upon the Path. They have a much wider scope, and
pertain to the broad sweep of the evolutionary cycle as it concerns the human
family as a whole, particularly in relation to its contribution to the entire
evolutionary scheme. However—owing to the lack of trained understanding—we
shall have to confine ourselves to the consideration of these rules solely as
they govern human unfoldment.

What we are seeking to reveal
(if possible) is some of the factors which govern the effort which the
Hierarchy of Control and the Custodians of the Plan utilise, as They proceed to
work with the factors already present in man, and the energies already in objective
use on this planet. What we shall say will not be of great simplicity, for it
is hard, even for the advanced disciple, to see the purpose of certain of these
factors. That which is here set forth on these matters must await later
developments during the coming century, and certain lines of scientific and
spiritual unfoldment must eventuate before the hidden implications can be
adequately comprehended. If it seems simple and clear it might be wise to
distrust the obvious interpretation. The matter is abstruse. It is well to
ponder on the thought here presented, but not to be quick to assume
understanding. There are many ways in which the work of the Hierarchy can be
expressed, and according to the type of mind will be the interpretation.

1. The Aim of These Rules

The objectives can (for our
purposes) be stated as four in number, but each of these is capable of
re-expression in a [217] number of ways.
They simply indicate the four major goals which the Workers with the Plan have
set Themselves. Let us state them succinctly, and later we can somewhat
elaborate them:—

1. The first aim and the
primary aim is to establish, through the medium of humanity, an outpost of the
Consciousness of God in the solar system. This is a correspondence, macrocosmically
understood, of the relationship existing between a Master and His group of
disciples. This, if pondered on, may serve as a clue to the significance of
our planetary work.

2. To found upon earth (as
has already been indicated) a powerhouse of such potency and a focal point of
such energy that humanity—as a whole—can be a factor in the solar system,
bringing about changes and events of a unique nature in the planetary life and
lives (and therefore in the system itself) and inducing an interstellar activity.

3. To develop a station of
light, through the medium of the fourth kingdom in nature, which will serve not
only the planet, and not only our particular solar system, but the seven
systems of which ours is one. This question of light, bound up as it is with
the colours of the seven rays, is as yet an embryo science, and it would be
useless for us to enlarge upon it here.

4. To set up a magnetic
centre in the universe, in which the human kingdom and the kingdom of souls
will, united or at-oned, be the point of most intense power, and which will
serve the developed Lives within the radius of the radiance of the One About
Whom Naught May Be Said.

In these four statements we
have sought to express the wider [218] possibility
or occasion as the Hierarchy sees it today. Their plans and purposes are
destined and oriented to a larger accomplishment than it is as yet possible for
normal man to vision. If it were not so, the unfoldment of the soul in man
would be a prime objective in the planet. But this is not the case. It may be
so from the point of view of man himself, considering him as an essentially
separable and identifiable unity in the great cosmic scheme. But it is not
so for that greater whole of which humanity is only a part. Those great Sons
of God, Who have passed beyond the point of development of those Masters Who
work entirely with the human kingdom, have plans of a still vaster and broader
sweep, and Their objectives involve humanity only as an item in the Plan of the
great Life "in whom we live and move and have our being."

One may ask (and rightly ask)
wherein all this information can be of use to us in the midst of a troubled and
bewildered world. For obvious reasons, a vision of the Plan, nebulous as it
must necessarily be, confers a sense of proportion and also of stability. It
leads to a much-needed re-adjustment of values, indicating as it does, that
there is purpose and objective behind all the difficult
happenings of daily life. It broadens and widens and expands the consciousness,
as we study the great volume of the planetary life, embracing as it does the
detail and the finished structure, the item man, and the entire life of the
planet, with their relation to the greater Whole. This is of far more
importance than the minute detail of the human being's individual capacity to
grasp his own immediate place within the larger picture. It is easy and
natural for man to emphasise those aspects of the hierarchical work which
concern himself. The Masters of the Wisdom Who are advanced enough to work
upon the larger areas of [219] the spiritual
plan are oft amused at the importance which the disciples and aspirants of the
world attach to Them, and at the manner in which They are overestimated. Can
we not realise that there are members of the Hierarchy Whose grasp of truth and
Whose knowledge of the divine Plan is as much in advance of the Masters known
to us as They are in advance of the savage and of the undeveloped man? We do
well to ponder on this fact.

It is not, however, a
profitless task for the disciples and aspirants to catch the dim outline of
that structure, that purpose and that destiny which will result from the
consummation and fruition of the Plan on earth. It need evoke no sense of
futility or of endless striving or of an almost permanent struggle. Given the
fact of the finiteness of man and of his life, given the tremendous periphery
of the cosmos and the minute nature of our planet, given the vastness of the
universe and the realisation that it is but one of countless (literally
countless) greater and smaller universes, yet there is present in men and upon
our planet a factor and a quality which can enable all these facts to be seen
and realised as parts in a whole, and which permits man (escaping, as he can,
from his human self-consciousness) to expand his sense of awareness and
identity so that the form aspects of life offer no barrier to his all-embracing
spirit. It is of use also to write these words and to deal with these ideas,
for there are those now coming into incarnation who can and will understand,
when present readers are dead and gone. I and you will pass on to other work,
but there will be those on earth who can vision the Plan with clarity, and
whose vision will be far more inclusive and comprehending than ours. Vision is
of the nature of divinity. Expansion is a vital power and prerogative of
Deity. Therefore let us struggle to grasp what is possible [220] at our particular stage of development, and leave
eternity to reveal its hidden secrets.

The factors which determine
this peculiar process of hierarchical work, and which therefore constitute the
major rules of the evolving life of God in the human family, are seven in
number. These—if we may so express it—determine hierarchical activity, leaving
wide scope for individual effort, but providing the vital active trends beyond
which no worker with the Plan will dare to go. We should be aware that there
are forces and energies which are kept in abeyance as the result of the interposition,
consciously effected, by the Hierarchy. It is possible for us to grasp the
fact that there are lives and types of activity which have been unable to
manifest (fortunately for the planet) since the Hierarchy was founded upon the
earth. There has not always been a Hierarchy of perfected souls, and this
concept opens up vistas in the realms of immature expression (from the angle of
human vision) as difficult to comprehend as those opened up when we pass, in
dim and nebulous imaginative consciousness, beyond the department of the
Hierarchy which deals with human affairs, and catch faint glimpses of the other
departments which work on broader and more inclusive lines.

2. The Seven Rules

The seven factors or
"Rules for Inducing Soul Control" are:—

1. The tendency, innate
and ineradicable, to blend and synthesise. This is a law or rule of life
itself.

a. This tendency results, on
the form side, in destruction and wreckage, with its accompaniments of pain and
sorrow. On the life side, it results in release, liberation and subsequent
expansion.

[221]

b. This tendency is the basic
cause of all initiation—individual, racial, planetary and systemic.

c. It is the result of an act
of the will, and is caused by the impulsion of the sensed and innate purpose of
God. However (and this is a point oft forgotten) this tendency is motivated by
the recognition of the planetary Logos, that His plan is conditioned in its
turn, and is an integral part of a still larger plan—that of the solar Deity.
God, the solar Logos, is likewise conditioned by a still higher life purpose.

2. The quality of the
hidden vision.

a. This quality, on the form
side, produces physical sight, astral illusion and concrete knowledge. On the
life side it produces illumination. This includes the widespread illumination
reflected by our planet in the heavens, as well as that which makes an
individual man a light-bearer, and which will eventually enable humanity, (as a
whole) to constitute a station of light upon earth.

b. This quality is the basic
cause of all sensory perception and is the instinctive urge to consciousness
itself, in all its many phases. With this quality the Hierarchy has to work,
intensifying it and giving it magnetic power.

c It is the high result of
desire, which is itself intrinsically founded on the will to form a plan and a
purpose.

3. The instinct to
formulate a plan. This instinct governs all activity which, in process of
evolution, divides itself into instinctual activity, intelligent activity,
intuitional or purposive activity, and illumined activity, as far as mankind is
concerned. This includes that department of the [222] Hierarchy which works with humanity. The higher
phases of planned activity are many and diverse, and are all synthesised under
the third ray activity, at present focussed in the seventh ray.

a. Viewed from the form side,
this faculty of planning leads to separative and selfish activity. Viewed from
the life side, it leads to a blended cooperation which swings each unit of
energy in every form, in all its subjective and unified aspects, into the task
of unification. This is potently taking place in the world today. It is the
tendency to at-one-ment which leads the human being, first of all, to the
development of an integrated personality, and then to the submergence of that
personality in the good of the greater whole.

b. This constitutes the basic
cause of evolution itself—individual, planetary and systemic.

c. This instinct is the
result of the development of manas, or mind, and the emergence of the
intelligence. It is the peculiar quality or instinctual nature through the
means of which humanity empresses the first Ray of Willed Intent, fostered by
desire, and transmuted into intelligent activity.

4. The urge to creative life,
through the divine faculty of imagination. This urge is, as can easily be
seen, closely connected with the fourth Ray of Harmony, producing unity and
beauty, won through conflict.

a. This, on the form side,
leads to warfare, struggle and the building of forms which must later be
destroyed. On the life side, it leads to quality, vibratory radiance and the
revelation upon earth of the world of meaning.

b. It is therefore the basic
cause of that subtle essence or [223] revelation
which is seeking expression through every form in each kingdom in nature.
There seems to be no better term by which to express this hidden wonder which
must be revealed than the revelation of meaning. This is beginning to
happen today.

c. It is the result of the
ability—sometimes adequate and sometimes inadequate—of the inner consciousness
to reveal its measure of control by the Plan, and its response to the larger
intent. It is upon this response that the Members of the Hierarchy are today
counting, as They endeavor to bring the hidden meaning to the fore in the
consciousness of man.

5. The factor of analysis.
This factor may surprise those who suffer from the misuse of the power to
discriminate, to analyse and to criticise. It is, however, a basic, divine
quality, producing wise participation in the Plan and skill in action.

a. On the form side, it
manifests as the tendency to separate, divide and to place in contradictory
positions. On the life side, it leads to that understanding which tends to
identification, through the wider choice and comprehension.

b. It is the basic cause and
impulse which will lead to the eventual appearance of the kingdom in nature,
higher than the human, which is strictly that of the soul, and will produce the
manifestation upon earth of the fifth kingdom in nature, that of the kingdom of
gods. This phrase should be noted.

c. It is the result of the
active work of the sons of God, the sons of mind, and is the part which they
are contributing to the total planetary contribution, as part of the great
systemic Plan. The Hierarchy itself is [224] the
outer and inner manifestation of the sacrifice of the divine Manasaputras (as
They are called in The Secret Doctrine), and its members respond to
Their sensed vision of the Plan for the whole. The Hierarchy is essentially
the germ or nucleus of the fifth kingdom in nature.

6. The quality, innate in
man, to idealise. This is founded upon the success of the Plan itself.
This Plan sought originally to awaken in man the following responses:—right
desire, right vision and right creative activity, based upon right
interpretation of ideals. This triplicity of purpose merits thoughtful
consideration.

a. On the form side, this has
worked out as material desire, leading eventually to cruelty and frequently to
an extreme sadistic expression. On the life side, it has led to sacrifice, one
pointed purpose, progress on the path, and devotion.

b. It is the basic cause of
all organisation and of cooperation. The ideal before the Hierarchy is the realised
Plan. This is brought to humanity in the form of ideas, which become, in time,
ideals—to be desired and fought for. In order to materialise these ideals, the
trend to organise comes into being.

c. It is the result—curiously
enough—of the work of a peculiar group of world workers, who are recognised by
humanity under the name of World Saviours. These are the Founders of those
forms through which the divine ideas become the ideals of the masses, in all
realms of human thought. Every great world leader is necessarily a
"suffering Saviour."

7. The seventh rule or
controlling force with which the [225] Hierarchy
works is theinterplay of the great dualities. Through the
activity engendered by this interplay, and through the results achieved (producing
always a third factor), the whole manifested world is swept into line with the
divine Purpose. This does not become apparent to the man who is immersed in
the detail of life, but could we see the planetary life as it can be seen by
the Masters Themselves, we would note the pattern emerging in all its beauty,
and the structure of God's thought for the universe appearing today in clearer
outline and greater synthesis and beauty of detail than ever before.

a. On the form side, this
produces the sense of being imprisoned by the time factor, the victim of speed,
and the implacable forces of all life activity, as they play upon the
imprisoned human being. On the life side, it results in rhythmic living and
conscious adaptation of energy to the immediate purpose and goal.

b. It is necessarily the
basic cause of the appearance and the disappearance of forms, human and humanly
constructed.

c. It is the result of
at-one-ments wrought out on the physical plane, thus producing the lower
unifications, just as the at-one-ments wrought out hitherto in the human
consciousness, have produced unification with the soul. The higher
at-one-ments, hitherto effected on the plane of mind, have to be expressed
eventually on the plane of physical life.

In the preceding introductory
outline, we have considered very briefly the rules which can induce on earth
that soul control which is the immediate goal of the evolutionary process. We
have seen that we are considering no simple exercises or discipline, nor are we
dealing with the development [226] of
those required characteristics which precede the stage of technical
Initiation. We are, in reality, concerned with those basic trends and those
innate tendencies in the divine expression which will ultimately bring about
the manifestation of the Oversoul upon our planet. We have seen also that
these governing tendencies are already beginning to be expressed and realised,
and that the fourth kingdom in nature, the human, occupies a unique position in
this development. In the downward and the upward flow of the divine life, as
it expresses itself through the involutionary and evolutionary urges, humanity
constitutes one of the fundamental "original centres of force" which
can and will form an outpost of the divine Consciousness, an expression of the
divine Psyche, manifesting eventually those three outstanding psychological
characteristics of divinity: Light, Energy, and Magnetism. In the human
being, the microcosmic reflection of the Macrocosm, these qualities are expressed
by the words: Illumination or Wisdom, Intelligent Activity, and Attractiveness
or Love. It is well to ponder on this attempt to simplify the divine potencies
into words, and thus to indicate how they may express themselves in and through
a human vehicle.

We can now enlarge somewhat
upon the previous statements, so as to give a clearer idea upon two matters:—

1. The relationship of these
divine qualities as they can be apprehended and developed in man.

2. The future responsibility
of an enlightened humanity, as it passes on into the New Age. We shall thus
lay the foundation for the teaching to be given later in this treatise.

One of the points which I
have sought to bring out in all the previous writings already published, is
that the Laws of the Universe, the Laws of Nature and those basic controlling [227] factors which determine all life and circumstance,
remaining for us fixed and unalterable, are the expression—as far as man can
understand them—of the Will of God. The rules or living factors which
we are now considering and which (when understood and obeyed) will induce soul
control in the individual and in the universe, are the expression of the Quality
or Nature of God. They will ultimately lead to the full expression of the
divine Psyche. They will bring into evidence the instinctual, emotional nature
of Deity, if such human words can in any way express the divine qualitative
potencies.

The Laws of the Universe express the divine Will, and lead to the
manifestation of divine Purpose. This is wisdom. They ordain and nurture the
Plan.

The Rules for Inducing
Soul Control express the divine
quality and lead to the revelation of God's Nature, which is love.

The Laws of Nature, or the so-called physical laws, express the stage of
manifestation or the point reached in the divine expression. They concern
multiplicity, or the quality aspect. They govern or express that which the
divine Spirit (which is will, functioning in love) has been able to effect in
conjunction with matter for the production of form. This emerging revelation
will produce the recognition of beauty.

The first category, the Laws
of the Universe, are touched upon in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire and
occasionally mentioned in the other writings. Modern science has done much to
bring about an understanding of the Laws of Nature, and can be trusted to do
so, for the soul drives all things on to knowledge. In what is here presented
I seek to lay the basis for the new science of psychology which must be founded
upon a broad and general understanding of the divine Psyche as it seeks
expression through the manifested Whole, the [228] solar
system, and, for our purposes, the planet and all that is upon it.

When the potency of the
divine psychology and its major trends and characteristics are recognised, and
when modern psychology shifts its attention away from the minute study of the
psyche of the individual man (and usually an abnormal individual) to a
concentrated consideration of the psychological attributes of the greater Whole
of which we are but a part, we shall arrive at a new comprehension of Deity and
of the relation of the microcosm to the Macrocosm. This has been left too much
to the department of philosophy in the past, but must now engross the attention
of the psychologist. This desirable event will be brought about when the true
meaning of history is grasped, when the wide sweep of human unfoldment down the
ages is understood, and when the soul is seen to be functioning through all
parts of all forms. At present, man alone is really credited with a soul, and
the soul of all things is overlooked. Yet man is but the macrocosm of the
other kingdoms in nature.

The seven rules which we are
now studying are, therefore, of supreme importance, for they embody the key ideas
which will reveal Deity in operation as the Soul of all things; They will
reveal the nature and method of activity of the Cosmic Christ, and will
indicate the governing qualitative tendencies which determine the psychical
life of all forms—from a universe to an atom—in the body of any so-called
material revelation of life. Let us bear these thoughts in mind as we read and
study.

These rules express
themselves with equal potency on all the seven rays, and they produce the
manifestation of consciousness on earth in any and every form. We shall first
deal mainly with the greater Whole, without emphasising the differentiation
into rays. The seven rays, as has often been stated, [229] colour or qualify the divine instincts and potencies,
but that is not all. They are themselves determined and controlled by these
potencies. It must never be forgotten that the rays are the seven major
expressions of the divine quality as it limits (and it does so limit) the
purposes of Deity. God Himself hews to a pattern, set for Him in a still more
distant vision. This purpose or defined will is conditioned by His instinctual
quality or psyche, in just the same way as the life purpose of a human being is
both limited and conditioned by the psychological equipment with which he
enters into manifestation. I have earlier stated that we were dealing with
abstruse and difficult matters, and that much presented might lie beyond our
immediate concrete understanding. The above statement is, however, relatively
simple, if interpreted in terms of one's own life purpose, and quality.

One point might here be
touched upon before we proceed with our study of the seven psychological
tendencies of Deity.

We have spoken here of God in
terms of Person, and we have used therefore the pronouns, He and His.
Must it therefore be inferred that we are dealing with a stupendous Personality
which we call God, and do we therefore belong to that school of thought which
we call the anthropomorphic? The Buddhist teaching recognises no God or
Person. Is it, therefore, wrong from our point of view and approach, or is it
right? Only an understanding of man as a divine expression in time and space
can reveal this mystery.

Both schools of thought are
right and in no way contradict each other. In their synthesis and in their
blending the truth as it really is can begin—aye, dimly—to appear. There is a
God Transcendent Who "having pervaded the whole universe with a fragment
of Himself" can still say: "I remain." There is a God Immanent
Whose life is the source of the [230] activity,
intelligence, growth and attractiveness of every form in all the kingdoms in
nature. There is likewise in every human being a transcendent soul which, when
the life cycle on earth has come and gone and when the period of manifestation
is over, becomes again the unmanifest and the formless, and which can also
say: "I remain." In form and when in manifestation, the only way in
which the human mind and brain can express its recognition of the conditioning
divine life is to speak in terms of Person, of Individuality. Hence we speak
of God as a Person, of His will, His nature and His form.

Behind the manifested
universe, however, stands the formless One, That which is not an
individual, being free from the limitations of individualised existence.
Therefore the Buddhist is right when he emphasises the non-individualised
nature of Deity and refuses to personalise Divinity. The Father, Son and Holy
Spirit of the Christian theology, embodying as they do the triplicities of all
theologies, disappear also into the One when the period of manifestation is
over. They remain as One, with quality and life untouched and
undifferentiated, as they are when in manifestation.

An analogy to this appears
when a man dies. Then his three aspects—mind or will, emotion or love, and
physical appearance—vanish. There is then no person. Yet, if one accepts the
fact of immortality, the conscious being remains; his quality and purpose and
life are united with his undying soul. The outer form with its
differentiations into a manifested trinity, has gone—never again to return in
exactly the same form or expression in time and space.

The interplay of soul and
mind produces the manifested universe, with all that is therein. When that
interplay is persisting, either in God or in man, we use (for how else can we
speak with clarity?) terms of human origin and therefore [231] limiting, such is our present stage of
enlightenment—or should we say, unenlightenment? Thus the idea of individuality,
of personality, and of form is built up. When the interplay ceases and
manifestation ends, such terms are no longer suitable; they have no meaning.
Yet the undying one, whether God or man, persists.

Thus in human thought,
preserved for us by the great Teacher of the East, the Buddha, we have
the concept of the transcendent Deity, divorced from the triplicities, the
dualities and the multiplicity of manifestation. There is but life, formless,
freed from the individuality, unknown. In the teaching of the West, preserved
for us and formulated for us by the Christ, the concept of God immanent
is preserved,—God in us and in all forms. In the synthesis of the Eastern and
the Western teachings, and in the merging of these two great schools of
thought, something of the superlative Whole can be sensed—sensed merely—not
known.

a. THE TENDENCY TO SYNTHESIS

The first of the factors
revealing the divine nature and the

first of the great
psychological aspects of God is the tendency to synthesis. This tendency
runs through all nature, all consciousness, and is life itself. The motivating
urge of God, His outstanding desire, is towards union and at-one-ment. It was
this tendency or quality which Christ sought both to reveal and to dramatise
for humanity. As far as the fourth kingdom in nature is concerned, His
tremendous utterances, expressed for us in St. John XVII, are the call to
synthesis, and urge us towards our goal.

"And now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be one, as
we are....

I have given them thy word;
and the world hath hated [232] them because they
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil.

They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world.

Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

That they all may be one; as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us;
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

Father, I will that they
also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my
glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of
the world."

Here we have the synthesis of
soul with spirit pointed out to us, and the synthesis of soul with matter also
emphasised, thus completing the unification and the desired at-one-ment.

But the synthesis of Deity,
His tendency to blend and fuse, is far more inclusive and universal than any
possible expression in the human kingdom, which is, after all, but a small part
of the greater whole. Man is not all that is possible, nor the consummation of
God's thought. The sweep of this instinct to synthesis underlies all
universes, constellations, solar systems, planets, and kingdoms in nature, as
well as the activity aspect and achievement of man, the individual. This
instinct is the governing principle of consciousness itself, and consciousness
is the psyche or soul, producing psychical life; it is awareness—sub-human,
human and divine.

In connection with man, we
have the following psychological expressions postulated:

1. Instinct, lying
below the level of consciousness, but protecting and governing most of the
habits and life of the organism. Much of the emotional life is thus governed. [233] Instinct controls, via the solar plexus and the lower
centres.

2. Intellect, which is
intelligent self-consciousness, guiding and directing the activity of the
integrated personality, via the mind and brain, and working through the throat
and ajna centres.

3. Intuition. This is
predominantly concerned with group consciousness and will eventually control
all our relations with each other, as we function in group units. It works
through the heart and the heart centre, and is that higher instinct which
enables a man to recognise and submit to his soul and to its control and life
impression.

4. Illumination. This
is a word which should really be applied to the designation of the super-human
consciousness. This divine instinct enables a man to recognize the whole of
which he is a part. It functions via a man's soul, utilising the head centre,
and eventually flooding with light or energy all the centres, thus linking a
man in consciousness with all the corresponding parts of the divine Whole.

Thus the trend to synthesis
is an instinct inherent in the entire universe, and man is today only awakening
to its immediacy and potency.

It is this divine attribute
in man which makes his physical body an integral part of the physical world;
which makes him psychically gregarious and willing to herd (of choice or
perforce) with his fellow man. It is this principle, working or functioning
through the human consciousness, which has led to the formation of our huge
modern cities—symbols of a coming higher civilisation which we call the kingdom
of God, wherein the relationship between men will be exceedingly [234] close psychically. It is this instinct to unify which
underlies all mysticism and all religions, for man seeks ever a closer union
with God and naught can arrest his at-onement (in consciousness) with Deity.
It is this instinct which is the basis of his sense of immortality, and which
is his guarantee of union with the opposite pole to the personality—the Soul.

Being an attribute of Deity,
and being a divine instinct and, therefore, part of the subconscious life of
God Himself, it will be obvious that, given the original premise that there is
a God, transcendent and immanent, we have, therefore, no cause for real fear or
foreboding. God's instincts are stronger and more vital and pure than are
those of humanity, and must eventually triumph, coming forth into full flower
and expression. All the lower instincts with which man battles are but the
distortions (in time and space) of reality, and hence the value of the occult
teaching that by pondering upon the good, the beautiful and the true, we
transmute our lower instincts into higher divine qualities. The attractive
power of God's instinctual nature, with its capacity to synthesise, to attract and
to blend, cooperates with the unrealised potencies of man's own nature, and
makes his eventual at-one-ment with God, in life and purpose, an inevitable,
irresistible occurrence.

This instinct or trend
towards synthesis and unification can be linked up by students with the laws of
the universe and of nature. It is closely related to the Law of Attraction and
to the Principle of Coherence. Later, we shall see much study done along these
relations. This series of text books of occultism and of the occult forces
which I have written are intended to act as sign posts, and as beacon lights
upon the way to knowledge. They contain hints and suggestions, but must be
interpreted by each student according to the measure [235] of light which is in him. Let him study what is going
on around him in the light of the Plan and of the knowledge here imparted, and
let him seek to trace for himself the emergence of the instinctual psychical
nature of Deity in world affairs and in his own life, for it is happening all
the time. He must ever remember that he himself possesses a psychical nature
which is a part of a greater whole, and, therefore, subject to impression from
divine sources. Let him cultivate in himself the trend to synthesis; let him
make the words, "I will not be separative in my consciousness," one
of the key thoughts of his daily life.

One point here should be
noted. This instinct to synthesis (concerning as it does the psychical nature
of Deity) has nothing to do with the physical expression of sex. This is
governed by other laws and is under the control of the physical nature. Let us
not forget that H.P.B. has said (and truly) that the physical body is not a
principle. These seven basic trends which we are considering are purely
psychical or psychological in nature.

The comprehension of the
nature of these compelling psychical attributes of God should enable a man to
throw the weight of his psychical aspiration on the side of these emerging
qualities. He will, for instance, in his daily life, work toward at-one-ment
with all beings, seeking to penetrate to the heart of his brother; endeavoring
to be at one with the life in all forms; rejecting every tendency to separative
reactions, because he knows that they concern the innate, inherited psyche of
the atoms of matter and substance which constitute his form nature. These have
been brought over and reassembled and rebuilt into the forms found in the
present manifestation of God. They carry with them the seeds of psychical
material life from an earlier universe. There is no other evil.

[236]

We have been taught much
anent the great heresy of separativeness; it is this that is offset when a man
permits the "trend towards synthesis" to pour through him as a divine
potency, and thus to condition his conduct. These divine trends have
constituted the basic, subconscious urges since the dawn of evolution. Today
humanity can consciously adjust itself to them, and thus hasten the time
wherein truth, beauty and goodness will reign.

The disciples of the world
and the New Group of World Servers, as well as all intelligent and active
aspirants, have today the responsibility of recognising these trends, and
particularly this trend to unification. The work of the Hierarchy at this time
is peculiarly connected with this, and They, and all of us, must foster and
nurture this tendency, wherever found. The standardisation and regimentation
of nations is but an aspect of this move towards synthesis, but one that is
being misapplied and prematurely enforced. All moves towards national and
world synthesis are good and right, but they must be consciously and willingly
undertaken by intelligent men and women, and the methods employed to bring
about this fusion must not infringe the law of love. The swing at this time
towards religious unity is also a part of the emerging beauty, and though forms
must disappear (because they are a source of separation) the inner, spiritual
synthesis must be developed. These two outstanding instances of this divine
trend, as they emerge in the human consciousness, are here mentioned because
they must be recognised, and all awakening souls must work for these ends. The
moment there is knowledge and a flash of understanding, that moment a man's
responsibility begins.

Let us study, therefore, the
tendencies in the world today, which indicate the active presence of this
trend, and foster it where we can. It will be discovered to be a practical and
[237] hard task. The imposition of a sensed, divine,
psychical attribute upon the form life (with its own psychical habits) will
test the powers of any disciple. To this we are called, for the sake of the
greater Whole.

b. THE QUALITY OF THE HIDDEN VISION

The next emerging trend is
one most difficult to express. It is not easy to discover the right words to
define its meaning. It is the quality of the inner vision. This cannot
readily be expressed in words that man can comprehend, for we refer not to
man's vision of God but to God's own vision of His purpose. Down the ages, men
have sensed a vision; they have seen it, and have merged themselves with it
after much struggle and effort; they have then passed out of human life into he
silence of the unknown. The mystic and the occultist have both testified to
this vision, and to it all that is beautiful and colourful in the world of
nature and of thought also bears silent witness. But what is it? How define
it? Men are no longer satisfied to call it God, and they are right, for it is,
in the last analysis, that to which God bends every effort.

Yet the quality and the
nature of the vision which is God's own vision, dream and thought, have held
His purpose steady throughout the aeons and have motivated His creative
processes. Great Sons of God have come and gone and challenged us to follow
the light, to seek the vision of reality, to open our eyes and see truth as it
is. Down the ages, men have sought to do this and have called the method of
their search by many names—life experience, scientific research, philosophic
questionings, history, adventure, religion, mysticism, occultism and many other
terms applied to the adventurous excursions of the human mind in search of
knowledge, of reality, of God. Some have ended up in a maze of astral
phenomena, and must continue their search later when they [238] emerge, chastened, from the depths of the Great
Illusion. Others have wandered back into the dark cave of a pronounced
materialism, of phenomenalism, and must likewise return and reorient
themselves, or rather perhaps, complete the circle, for who shall say that God
is here or there, or from what point His vision can be seen? Some lose
themselves in thought processes and self-induced imaginings, and the vision
gets hidden behind a multitude of words, both spoken and written. Still others
find themselves lost in the clouds of their own devotion and self-awareness,
and in the misty speculations of their own minds and desires. They are at a
standstill, lost in the fog of their own dreams of what the vision should be
and thus it eludes them.

Others—the theologians of any
school of thought—have sought to define the vision, and have endeavored to
reduce God's hidden goal and intent to forms and rituals and to say, with
emphasis: "We know." Yet they have never touched the reality, and
the truth is as yet unknown to them. The possibility of the Vision
which lies beyond, or behind the vision of the mystic is forgotten in the forms
built up in time; and the symbols of the teachings of those Sons of God Who have
seen the reality is lost to sight in rituals and ceremonies, which (though they
have their place and teaching value) must be used to reveal and not to obscure.

The vision is ever on ahead;
it eludes our grasp; it haunts our dreams and our high moments of aspiration.
Only when a man can function as a soul, and can turn the developed inner eye
outward into the world of phenomena and inward into the world of reality, can
he begin to sense God's true objective and purpose, to catch a brief glimpse of
God's Own pattern and the Plan to which he so willingly conditions His own
Life, and for which the Eternal Sacrifice of the Cosmic Christ is essential.

[239]

With these two divine trends
(towards synthesis and towards the vision) the Hierarchy is at this time
primarily occupied. Their watchwords are unification and sight.
For humanity, these developments will produce the integration of the soul and
the personality, and the awakening of that inner vision which will permit a
flash of the Reality to enter into man's consciousness. This is not a flash of
his own divinity, or a sensing of God as Creator. It is a flash of the
divinity inherent in the Whole, as it works out a vaster scheme of evolutionary
process than any hitherto grasped or sensed by the keenest minds on earth. It concerns
the vision granted when a man achieves Nirvana, and enters upon the first stage
of that endless Path which leads towards a beauty, comprehension and
unfoldment, untouched as yet by the highest type of human insight.

It would be well to point out
here that beyond the stage of illumination, as it can be achieved by man, lies
that which we might call the unfoldment of divine Insight. We have,
therefore, the following unfoldments and possible developments, each of which
constitutes an expansion in consciousness, and each of which admits man more
closely and more definitely into the heart and mind of God.

Instinct

|

Intellect

|

Intuition

> All of them leading
up to lnsight.

Illumination

|

In these words, sequentially
presented, there is perhaps made clearer to us the fact of God's own vision.
More is not possible until each of those words signifies something practical in
our own inner experience.

This quality of the inner
vision with which the Hierarchy are seeking to work and to develop in the souls
of men (it [240]
would be of use to ponder on this
last phrase, as it presents an aspect of hierarchical endeavor not hitherto
considered in occult books) is an expression of the Principle of Continuance,
which finds its distorted reflection in the word so often used by disciples:—Endurance.
This principle of continuance constitutes the capacity of God to persist and
"to remain." It is an attribute of the cosmic Ray of Love as are all
the principles which we are now considering in connection with these soul rules
or factors—these trends of divinity and these tendencies of the divine life.
Let us not forget that all the seven rays are subrays of the cosmic Ray of
Love. We shall, therefore, see why these principles are determining soul
activities, and can only come into play when the kingdom of God, or of souls,
begins to materialise on earth.

This principle of continuance
is based upon the clearer vision of Deity and upon the consequent continuity of
God's plan and purpose which results when the objective is clearly seen by Him
and developed in plain and formulated outline. It is the macrocosmic
correspondence to the continuance and the continuity found in man when—after a
night of sleep and of unconsciousness—he proceeds with his daily avocation and
consciously resumes his planned activities.

From the hints given above it
will be seen how the work of the Hierarchy in connection with mankind falls
into two parts:—the work with individual human beings, in order to awaken them
to soul consciousness, and then the work with them, as souls, so that
(functioning then on soul levels and as conscious units in the kingdom of God)
they can begin to vision the objective of God Himself. This second division of
Their effort is only now becoming possible on a wide scale, as men begin to
respond to the trend towards synthesis, and to react to the divine principle of
coherence, so that (stimulated by their group relation) they can unitedly sense
the [241] vision and react to the principle of continuance. A
hint is here given as to the true and future purpose of group meditation. More
on this subject is not possible.